Let me be blunt. It’s obvious to me that the political right needs a fighting force—an organized ground level force built for the political conflicts of the 21st century. Politics has become a contact sport. This force must be unlike many GOP political figures who want to avoid contact and seem obsessed with being admired by the left and the editorial boards of the New York Times and CNN, rather than pushing back against the people seeking to destroy them. Who was it that said, you can’t fix stupid?

The left aided by the liberal media has declared war on conservatives. They have declared war on cops, the Constitution, the rule of law, due process, religion, and free speech. To counter this, we need political street fighters, brawlers to help President Trump push back against the swamp, the deep state, never-Trumpers on the right, and the Washington establishment. Currently, Trump has to rely on a group of your grandfather’s Republicans who mistakenly believe that you can compromise with the left or that you can win at political warfare from inside the safe space of a think tank, a TV studio, or from a DC cocktail party.

Traditional GOP politicians and elites do not realize that going forward into the 2020 elections the tactics they are currently using that had previously worked to win elections have become obsolete and ineffective at countering the guerrilla-type warfare tactics of the Democrat Party and the American left.

Somebody needs to tell these Republican intellectual elites that the other side is shooting at us figuratively and literally as in the case of Congressman Steve Scalise. In this new age of political warfare, they have allowed the left to dictate the rules of engagement. In turn, the left has turned politics into the art of lying. They control the language that can be used and thus control the narrative. Anyone who thinks the left will play fair or use traditional methods to win debates or elections is dangerously naïve. These political ambushes are the metaphorical equivalent of a roadside IED. Often you won’t know the left’s blast is coming until it’s too late in the election cycle when their eleventh-hour surprise smears or outright lies appear. Recall when former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said that 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney didn’t pay his taxes for ten years. After the election when Reid was confronted about the outright lie he smugly responded, “It worked didn’t it?”

Everyone should be awake to the predictable left. Their opposition research digs deep into a GOP candidates’ past, finding some innocuous clumsy statement, photo or connection even if it was decades ago and smears them with it as if it happened yesterday. They recently did it to Cindy Hyde-Smith in her U.S. Senate race as the Democrats engaged in their insidious game of identity politics.

Who is behind this? A few culprits are Media Matters, American Bridge, CREW and Shareblue. These are subversive leftist groups running a well-funded and organized Trump resistance movement. They are purveyors of misinformation and propaganda. They have made it clear that elections no longer matter unless they win. When they lose, they demand recounts, claim voter suppression and suspicious uncounted ballots will magically appear. Media Matters operative David Brock said in a confidential memo that, “We will fight every day. We’re going to resist the normalization of Donald Trump. We’re going to contest every effort.” In a training manual, Shareblue proclaimed that Trump allies would be forced to step down or change course due to news pushed by Shareblue. They organize boycotts and threaten corporations into not doing business with conservative groups. They conduct training courses on how to write letters and flood newspaper publishers to stop counterview op-eds from being published in liberal publications. They attack conservatives on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter and flood their administrators with complaints to get them shut down or suspended.

These are the leftist bullies that can at a moment's notice summon a mob of people to show up and raise hell. They were behind the smearing of Justice Brett Kavanaugh. They were the ones who were pounding on the doors of the U.S. Supreme Court trying to storm the gates. They engage in political violence, throw out false allegations of sexual assault or harassment, and race baiting along with other types of physical threats, physical violence, and property damage. They are undoubtedly behind the assaults against Republican elected officials and White House staff in public places like restaurants or at their homes.

These leftist groups are a formidable foe that the conservative side currently has no response. We need infrastructure, and we need to mobilize it quickly. I want to be clear. I do not advocate for violence, but I do advocate for more effective counter-tactics than the weak-kneed ones currently deployed.

This new conservative fighter has to rid themselves of their self-righteousness about the kind of tactics they will have to use to take on the left’s machine. For instance, taking the high road is an ineffective tactic against this foe as merely is expressing outrage. Proving that we are better than they are is useless. Besides, I already know I am better and don’t have to prove that to anybody. This new political fighter has to be able to fight through whatever the left throws at them and not flinch, apologize, grovel or abandon a conservative or GOP candidate after an opposition research sneak attack. Think Trump supporter. They have to snicker at being called racist, homophobe, misogynist, lslamaphobe, and fight on. In other words, when the left metaphorically throws rocks, the new conservative fighter has to be willing to pick up those rocks and throw them back. If you need an example just watch how President Trump fearlessly takes on the left.

Many on the conservative side do not have the stomach for this. My response is then get used to losing elections. Get used to gun confiscation. Get used to government control over every aspect of your life. Get ready for totalitarian fascism. You can stop it. If you dare to change tactics and move to the front.

David A. Clarke Jr. is former Sheriff of Milwaukee County, WI., Senior advisor for America First Action PAC/Policy, President of America’s Sheriff LLC and author of Cop Under Fire: Beyond hashtags of Race Crime and Politics for a Better America.